The present invention relates to a system for applying recipes of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses.
A process for manufacturing semiconductor wafers or liquid crystal substrates generally comprises various steps, e.g., the film formation step, the coating/developing step, the etching step, the ion implantation step, and the diffusion step. A to-be-processed substrate, e.g., a semiconductor wafer (to be referred to as a wafer hereinafter), sequentially moves among a plurality of stations corresponding to the above steps. Predetermined processes proceed in this manner. In general, a plurality of identical treatment apparatuses are installed at each station to cope with mass production. These apparatuses are managed by a high level controller. Consider, for example, a batch scheme type heat treatment apparatus. In a heat treatment apparatus of this type, many wafers are mounted on a wafer boat in the form of shelves. This wafer boat is loaded into a vertical heat treatment furnace to heat-treat the wafers.
In a conventional heat treatment station system, a plurality of heat treatment apparatuses are controlled by a host computer through a group controller. More specifically, a recipe ID for designating process information required to heat-treat the wafer is sent from the host computer to the group controller. The group controller holds the recipes used by the respective heat treatment apparatuses. The group controller edits recipes in accordance with the recipe IDs from the host computer, performs management such as storage of the histories of process recipes used, and exchanges the process recipes to be executed with the respective heat treatment apparatuses. Each heat treatment apparatus is operated on the basis of the received recipes. The process data for each apparatus, e.g., changes in temperature, pressure, gas flow, and the like, is temporarily sent to the group controller, from which the data is transferred to the host computer.
In the conventional system having the above arrangement, however, when the group controller goes down, the treatment apparatuses cannot receive any recipes, and hence cannot be operated. Even if a given apparatus has already received a recipe for one process and can be operated, the recipe cannot be copied in the remaining apparatuses. The remaining apparatuses cannot therefore be operated. In addition, no process data can be transferred to the host computer, and no operation state of the apparatuses can be monitored by the host computer. As a result, the entire system goes down, and cannot be restarted until the group controller is restored.